David Ortiz's Incredible Hall Of Fame Resume
BOSTON (CBS) -- David Ortiz will take his spot in Cooperstown on Sunday, the only player to be enshrined to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2022. The Red Sox legend made it in on his first appearance on the ballot, becoming just the 58th first-ballot Hall of Famer.
Ortiz certainly put together a Hall of Fame resume during his 20-year career in Major League Baseball. Cast off by the Minnesota Twins in 2002, Ortiz was signed by the Red Sox late in the 2003 offseason at the behest of Pedro Martinez. It took him until midseason for him to get an everyday spot in the Boston lineup, but after that, Big Papi never stopped mashing. He put up some truly incredible numbers in his 14 seasons with the Red Sox, becoming one of the most clutch hitters in the game and one of the most important players in franchise history.
It wasn't just the total number of homers and clutch hits that Ortiz racked up, but when he came through. Most of his biggest swings came in the biggest moments, ending in three World Series titles for Ortiz and the Red Sox.
With Ortiz set to take his spot in Cooperstown this weekend, here's a look at the slugger's incredible Hall of Fame resume.
The Stats
- Throughout his career, Ortiz slashed .286/.380/.552 while recording 2,472 hits. Of those hits, he had 632 doubles and 541 homers, driving in 1,768 runs while scoring 1,419 of his own. He also drew 1,319 walks during his career.
He ranks 23rd all-time in RBIs, while Ortiz's .552 slugging percentage currently ranks 26th all-time with his .931 OPS ranking 38th.
- Those 541 regular season homers that Ortiz crushed rank him 17th overall in the record books. He is 12th all-time in doubles and tied for eighth all-time with 1,192 extra-base hits.
Only Hank Aaron, Barry Bonds, Stan Musial, Albert Pujols, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays and Alex Rodriguez have more extra-base hits than Ortiz, who shares eighth place with Ken Griffey Jr. and Rafael Palmeiro.
- Ortiz set a Red Sox franchise record with 54 homers in 2006. That season was his third straight with 40-plus homers for Boston.
- Ortiz hit at least 30 homers in 10 of his seasons in Boston, starting in 2003 when he launched 31 in just 128 games.
- He led all of baseball with a career-high 148 RBIs in 2005, and finished third overall with 48 homers behind Alex Rodriguez (48) and Andruw Jones (51). Ortiz led the AL in RBIs two other times; in 2006 with 137 RBIs and 10 years later in his final season in 2016 with 127 RBIs.
- Ortiz's final season in 2016 was pretty incredible, as the 40-year-old DH led baseball with 48 doubles, 87 extra-base hits, a .620 slugging percentage and a 1.021 OPS.
- Ortiz was a 10-Time All-Star, and also won the Home Run Derby in 2010.
- He was named the AL Player of the Month three times and AL Player of the Week six times during his career.
- Ortiz won the Edgar Martinez Outstanding DH Award eight times, was named a Silver Slugger seven times, and was a two-time Hank Aaron Award winner as the best hitter in the AL. He also won the Roberto Clemente Award in 2011, which is given annually to the player who "best exemplifies the game of baseball, sportsmanship, community involvement and the individual's contribution to his team."
- The 38 homers that Ortiz hit in 2016 are the most ever hit by a player in their final MLB season.
The Playoffs
- The playoffs are where David Ortiz did his most impactful damage for the Red Sox. Overall, he slashed .289/.404/.543 over 85 postseason games, sending 17 home runs into the stands and driving in 61 runs. Those 61 RBIs are fourth all-time in postseason history, and the 19 runs that he drove in during the 2004 playoffs are tied for the third-most in a single postseason. He's sixth all-time with 165 total bases in his postseason career.
All of that led to three World Series titles for Boston, a franchise that had gone a lifetime without one before Ortiz arrived.
- Those numbers are wild, but it's how Ortiz racked up those numbers that make them more amazing. We'll start in 2004, when he helped the Red Sox end an 86-year championship draught with an epic postseason run.
Ortiz hit .545 in Boston's three-game sweep of the Angels in the ALDS, launching a 10th inning walk-off homer off Jarrod Washburn in Game 3 to send the Red Sox to the ALCS.
That was just a warmup for the ALCS against the hated Yankees, when Ortiz helped the Red Sox tailor one of the most incredible comeback in sports history. With the Red Sox down 3-0 in the series, Ortiz gave the Red Sox another crack at New York when he cranked a two-run homer off Paul Quantrill for the walk-off Boston victory.
A little over 24 hours later, Ortiz had some more extra innings walk-off magic in his bat, looping an RBI single to shallow center in the 14th inning to give Boston a 5-4 win. All of a sudden it was a 3-2 series heading back to New York thanks to a double dip of Ortiz heroics.
Following an 0-for-4 in Boston's Game 6 win, Ortiz got the deciding Game 7 started by ripping a two-run homer in the top of the first. The Red Sox won 10-3 to pull off the first-ever 3-0 comeback in postseason history, with Ortiz earning MVP honors after batting .429 with four homers and 15 RBIs.
Ortiz hit .308 with a homer, four RBIs and three runs scored in Boston's World Series sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals.
- Ortiz was at it against in Boston's World Series run in 2007. He went 5-for-7 and drew six walks in an ALDS sweep over the Angels, sending two of those five hits into the stands. He was somewhat held in check during a seven-game ALCS win over Cleveland, but was back to taking big swings in the World Series against the Rockies. Ortiz had a pair of doubles and had two two-out RBIs in Game 1 of the Fall Classic, and finished the four-game sweep with four doubles, four runs scored and four RBIs.
- After a four-year absence from the postseason, the Red Sox and Ortiz were back big in 2013. Big Papi crushed a pair of homers in Game 2 of the ALDS against the Rays, a series that Boston won in four games.
Ortiz had just two hits in the ALCS, batting just .091 against the Tigers. But one of those swings was one of the biggest in Red Sox history. With Boston down 5-1 in the bottom of the eighth, Ortiz woke up a sleeping Red Sox offense with a game-tying grand slam into the Boston bullpen. It's an iconic moment in Red Sox postseason history, and one of Ortiz's most clutch hits.
The Red Sox won the game, 6-5, and went on to win the series in six games.
- Ortiz's 2013 World Series gets its own section, because it was absolutely bananas. He tied a World Series record that year, reaching base nine times in a row in Boston's six-game victory over the Cardinals.
During that Fall Classic, Ortiz hit an amazing .688 with a .760 OBP, racking up 11 hits while drawing eight walks. He hit a pair of homers, drove in six runs and scored seven of his own, finishing the series with a 1.948 OPS and 1.188 slugging percentage.
Ortiz homered in each of the first two games at Fenway Park, going 4-for-6 with five RBIs. He was 3-for-3 in Game 4 with a double and two runs scored, and went 3-for-4 with an RBI in Boston's Game 5 win in St. Louis. Boston won both games.
Ortiz was 0-for-1 in Boston's series-clincher in Game 6 at Fenway Park, but he drew four walks and scored a pair of runs. At the end of the series Ortiz was named MVP of the Fall Classic, and secured his third World Series ring. He also received the Babe Ruth Award, given to the player who had the best postseason run. That must have been an extremely easy decision for those voting on the award.